1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to methods and systems for developing a vehicle package, more particularly to methods and systems that utilize a mechanical vehicle package model.
2. Background Art
Automotive vehicle development is a lengthy process, which requires designing, validating and testing of a vehicle package. The vehicle design may begin with designer drawings, sketches or physical models, such as clay models of conceptual exterior and/or interior designs.
During a subsequent stage, these designs may be represented in a clay physical model, an adjustable vehicle package model, or a computer aided design.
An adjustable physical vehicle package model, often referred to as a “buck” in the industry, assists in developing a vehicle package. The physical model assists in determining an occupant's spacial environment, including overall exterior and interior dimensions and the vehicle's mechanical spacial configuration. It is important in designing a vehicle package to make efficient cost effective allocation of space within the vehicle package. Often times vehicle package design issues may be undetectable until a physical buck is developed. Unlike clay representations, bucks are often adjustable for rapidly making adjustments to overcome design issues or assess package alternatives. Accordingly, adjustable bucks have often been used up front to identify such issues.
Adjustable vehicle bucks also permit validation studies and marketing studies. Multiple occupants representing a range of occupant sizes may be evaluated with the adjustable buck for determining the efficiency, occupant accommodation, ergonomics and/or marketing appeal of a particular vehicle package.
The prior art has offered programmable vehicle models or bucks that incorporate a computer controlling an automated adjustable vehicle buck so that adjustments to the vehicle package may be inputted and adjustments may be made directly to the programmable vehicle model. One such prior art reference is U.S. Pat. No. 6,371,766 B1, which issued to Doll et al. on Apr. 16, 2002, and is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein.
Once a vehicle package has been validated, the vehicle package data is retrieved from either the vehicle package computer or from physical measurements made from the physical vehicle package model. These dimensions are then manually input into a computer aided design (CAD) or a computer aided engineering system (CAE) for generating an electronic vehicle package design. The electronic vehicle package design may have been generated beforehand for performing electronic tests upon the vehicle package. Upon inputting the data from the physical vehicle package, the electronic vehicle package design is either generated or modified from a prior design. At this point, the electronic vehicle package design may be evaluated for various requirements including SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) design parameters or other design limitations.
If any vehicle package changes are required at the electronic vehicle package design stage, these changes may be input into the programmable vehicle model to assess and validate the modifications in a physical representation. If physical validation unveils any design issues, they may be eliminated with adjustments to the programmable vehicle model. These adjustments are then manually entered into the virtual vehicle package. This cycle continues until the vehicle package is successfully validated in both software and hardware environments.
The process of developing a vehicle package may be both costly and time consuming. The vehicle package requires validation at the physical stage, and may also require validation at the electronic stage. If design issues arise at either stage, the modifications to overcome these issues may require further validation at both the physical and electronic levels. Due to the lack of synergy between both systems, significant time, money and resources are consumed by this process. Additionally, errors may be made in obtaining the data in one system and inputting it into the other system.
A goal of the present invention is to increase the efficiency and workability of a physical vehicle model and the electronic design in the development of a vehicle package.